Use of the UDC in Spain: implementation, application, teaching and research

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1 Use of the UDC in Spain: implementation, application, teaching and research Item Type Conference Paper Authors San Segundo Manuel, Rosa Citation Use of the UDC in Spain: implementation, application, teaching and research 2007, Extensions and Corrections to the UDC, 29 (2007): Publisher UDC Consortium Download date 04/07/ :14:34 Link to Item

2 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 285 Use of the UDC in Spain: implementation, application, teaching and research Rosa San Segundo Manuel Library and Information Science Department Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Abstract: It was from 1895 onwards, the year in which the First International Bibliography Conference was held that the Decimal Classification system began to be implemented on a European scale and started to be disseminated in Spain. The introduction of the UDC scheme was initially subject to numerous difficulties faced by the various initiatives undertaken by individual librarians, but it subsequently received the support of the Spanish Administration. In 1939, the adoption of the UDC was established for all Spanish libraries, by official decree. Although what was stipulated in the decree was the 1934 German version, in practice libraries implemented the latest version of the UDC tables. Finally, from 1989 onwards, the compulsoriness of using UDC to classify collections and catalogues was abandoned, although its implementation in libraries, catalogues and bibliographies remained in most cases. The UDC is taught within the framework of regulated Library and Information Science schools, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. In Spain, research on the UDC is already quite important: translations, adaptations and versions of the tables have been undertaken and there are also analytical works on different aspects of the UDC system. Keywords: UDC in Spain; UDC history; UDC teaching 1. Introduction of the UDC in Spanish libraries The classification system which was most widely used in Spanish libraries in the 19 th century was the Brunet system. It was implemented in the Royal Library, later to become the National Library, in popular and public libraries and in university libraries as well. This system predominated in the Spanish library system until the 30s of the 20 th century. Minor attempts were made to introduce the UDC system in an isolated manner until the arrival of the Second Republic when it was implemented in most libraries. The first attempt to disseminate the Decimal Classification in Spain was made by the librarian Manuel Castillo, at the University of Salamanca, following the First International Bibliography Conference in 1895, organised by what was then called the International Bibliography Institute (IBI), which had been recently created by Paul Otlet and Henry LaFontaine. Castillo was the first disseminator and translator of the Decimal Classification in Spain. He became aware of the First IBI Conference through an article about the Institute, published in a French jurisprudence journal which divulged the advantages of the system. He was the first Spanish member of the Institute and translated the tables. Subsequent claims in favour of the Decimal Classification were insignificant as the Supervisory Body of Archivists and Librarians overwhelmingly rejected the proposal (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996).

3 286 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access The second attempt to implement the UDC in Spanish libraries was undertaken by the Library of Military Engineers, which also met with serious difficulties. In 1908, this library was the first Spanish library to implement the decimal system and to become a member of the Institute, and created an engineering bibliographic information service. Captain Engineer Leopoldo Giménez studied the UDC system and translated the UDC tables 62 - Engineering. Ricardo Codorniú, who published, in 1911, a monograph on the Decimal Classification including a translation of the tables on Forestry, had been a member of the Institute since 1908 and, since then had received the Institute s newsletter. Another librarian who, in an isolated manner, propagated the UDC was the librarian Román Gómez Villafranca, (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996). He worked in the Provincial Library of the General and Technical Institute of Badajoz and was also one of the first Spanish members of the Institute. In 1911, he used the classification in a bibliographical index of the Journal of Archives, Libraries and Museums. The librarian Antonio Paz y Meliá, who was at the time working for the National Library in Madrid, unsuccessfully tried to implement the Decimal System in national libraries and to obtain Spanish collaboration in bibliographic matters. He died in 1927 at a time when the UDC was far from being implemented. Another advocator of the UDC in Spain was the Jesuit father Julián de Eguía, (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996). In 1920, he published his work My Library, whose first volume entitled Classification was an exposé of the Decimal Classification. In the early 20 th century, support for the implementation of the UDC system in Spain consisted of occasional attempts, such as that of the Assembly of the Supervisory Body of Archivists and Librarians, which was held in The librarians who defended the implementation of the UDC included Ignacio Rubio y Cambronero, José de San Simón, José María Castrillo, Jesús Domínguez Bordona and Rafael Ureña. This attempt was unsuccessful and was cut short by the Primo de Rivera s coup in 1923, which interrupted the Assembly s activity. Following the Assembly s failure, Camilo Chousa published in 1927 a paper analysing classification systems under the title Librarianship. Classification Systems. The implementation of the UDC in Spain was extremely slow. Besides being few and scattered, libraries lacked guidelines for the undertaking of technical work. Compared to the rest of Spain, the historical evolution of libraries in Catalonia has been different. In 1914, the librarian Sebastian Farnés, from the Work Promotion Library, translated and explained the decimal system underlying UDC numbers concerning the Catalan language. Farnés modification was due to the fact that the UDC notation included the following: France 44; Spain 46, and Catalonia Considering that, in the systematic tables of the UDC, number 4 represents Europe, 6 the Iberian Peninsula and 7 its eastern part, and if the geographical subdivision coincides with the philological one, the Catalan language could not be represented by as established in the UDC system, as this would mean representing the Catalan language as a variant of French. Therefore, according to Farnés, the Catalan language should be represented by 467. This was the reason why the UDC was not subsequently implemented in Catalonia, but rather the European versions of Decimal Classification of 1905 (SAN SEGUNDO, 1994). In 1914, a regional government was created in Catalonia. It had a certain degree of autonomy in respect to central government

4 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 287 and three institutions were created: the School of Librarians, the Library of Catalonia and the network of popular libraries. 2. Implementation of the UDC in Spanish libraries In 1931, when the 2 nd Spanish Republic was proclaimed, there was a great concern about libraries and important problems of the library field, such as classification, were addressed. During the period of the Republic, library policy developed enormously and the Decimal Classification was implemented in the National Library, in popular libraries, in universities, municipal libraries and other, although the aforementioned implementation was not given legal status. The Republic soon began to develop a library policy incorporating the most cutting-edge educational ideas. It aimed to foster public reading, undertaking the most progressive ideas in both library organisation and technical work. Thus, UDC became common to all areas of library service, as the instructions emanating from the different governing bodies indicated its widespread implementation. The Board for the Interchange and Acquisition of Books for public libraries was created in 1931 to foster modernization of bibliographic collections. Despite being primarily focused on creating libraries, due to the country s precarious situation, the Board drafted rules instructing on the organisation of libraries by means of the Decimal Classification. During the Spanish Civil War, from , the Republican Government created the Central Council of Archives, Libraries and Artistic Treasure which, among other duties, was charged with dictating the governing instructions and rules for libraries and other information centres. All its members were in favour of driving the implementation of the UDC (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996). The Council was chaired by the director of the National Library, Tomás Navarro; the Subsection of Scientific Libraries was run by the librarian of the supervisory body, Benito Sánchez Alonso; and the Subsection of General Libraries went to the librarian of the supervisory body, Juan Vicens de la Llave who was an inspector of municipal libraries in Madrid. When the Civil War was over, he went into exile in Mexico where he published How to organise a library and the Manual of the dictionary catalogue, both published in He also published Living Spain, the people conquer culture in 1938, in Paris. Through María Moliner, a librarian member of the supervisory body, the school libraries section drew up a plan for public libraries, which appeared as a publication of the Central Council of Archives, Libraries and Artistic Treasure under the title Plan for the general organisation of public libraries. In 1937, the Central Council published Instructions for the service of small libraries, the first Spanish instructions to lay down the use of the UDC. These instructions are of utmost importance for their originality and because they were the first regulations of this type to shape the implementation of the UDC. These two works summarise the intense cultural and library-related activity undertaken during the years of the Republic ( ). Moliner was also the author of the well-known Dictionary of Spanish usage to which she dedicated her time after the Civil War, when she moved away from her intense library activity. The Library Extension section of the Council was run by Teresa Andrés, who collaborated intensely with the Republican library organisation known as Popular Culture. For the latter, she drafted Instructions for the organisation of front lines, barracks and hospitals which are closely related to the Instructions for the service of small libraries written by María

5 288 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access Moliner. All of them were charged with preparing instructions and rules for the technical work in libraries, including subject classification, a task which was tackled by the aforementioned members of the Council. This fruitful period was the Spanish cultural renaissance known as the Silver Age of Spanish culture. As the instructions issued by the Council laid down the use of the UDC system for the classification of bibliographic collections, the need emerged to translate the main tables of the system. Consequently, the librarian from the Centre for Extremadura Studies, Méndez Albarrán, drafted the first detailed translation of the tables and, in 1932, he published Decimal Bibliographical Classification. An exposé of the system and its abridged table. Issued as part of the official publications of the Brussels International Institute of Bibliography, under number 167, this work became a manual for Spanish libraries. Jorde Rubió i Balaguer, a classification teacher and the director of all Catalan libraries who theorised, translated and adapted the Decimal Classification in Catalonia, implemented the system in the Library of Catalonia, the first major library in the Spanish state to do so, and in the network of popular libraries of the region, of which he was the director (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996). In 1920, he published the first translation of the tables into Catalan under the title Decimal Classification, an adaptation for Catalan libraries. This translation was based on the Institute s 1905 version entitled A Manual of the Universal Bibliographical Repertoire. In 1938, Rubió published a second version of his translation and adaptation of the tables. At this point in time, the birth, in the true sense of the word, of the UDC tables, in their second international edition ( ), had already occurred. Nevertheless, for Rubió it was evident that the criteria of clarity and simplification once defended by Dewey had been lost, because the number of systematic divisions had increased considerably compared to the first version of Rubió also raised other arguments in his defence of the Dewey Decimal Classification, compared to the UDC. In fact, he argued that, although the appearance of the UDC marked a period of enormous diffusion, this did not mean its adoption in an orthodox manner as occurred in the USSR, the United Kingdom, and other countries. Another argument he used was to consider that, in 1938, the UDC system was not as important as it had been previously, as seen at the meeting of the International Documentation Institute (IDI, the name taken by the IBI from 1931 onwards), held in Frankfurt in 1932, at which the chairman highlighted that the most important missions of the IDI did not include asserting the UDC system. Furthermore, at the meeting of the American Library Association (ALA), it was concluded that the UDC was not a library system but rather a system reserved for libraries, in other words, that the UDC was a language to designate concepts but not to order them. Consequently, Rubió did not use the UDC but the system from which it had stemmed: Dewey Decimal Classification with the first modifications made by the Institute in Rubió worked for the theoretical and practical development of Decimal Classification until 1939, the time when the Spanish Civil War ended. He was dismissed and did not continue working on the development of the Decimal Classification until 1976, when he published the third edition of his adaptation of the system. The fourth version of this Catalan adaptation was undertaken by his son Jordi Rubió i Lois. During the period of the Spanish 2 nd Republic, the Decimal Classification was definitively implemented. The translation of the tables used in major libraries was that by Méndez

6 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 289 Albarrán and in Catalonia that of Jordi Rubio i Balaguer. However, this implementation was not given legal status, because the choice was first to study the problems arising from these initiatives and an attempt was made to avoid the rigidity of the legal assumption of these projects. In this way, the possibility emerged to introduce reforms and modifications in respect to classification. This fruitful library policy renounced the support of a strict legal framework and preferred to concentrate on technical issues. Once the Republican Government had been defeated by Franco s troops and the war was over, the Decimal Classification was assumed within a legal framework, under Franco s Government. 3. Official implementation of the UDC In 1939, just a few days after the end of the Civil War, the official compulsory nature of using the UDC system to classify the collections of Spanish libraries was established by means of a ministerial order. What was adopted was the Melvil Dewey Decimal System, modified by the Brussels International Institute of Bibliography and with the corrections introduced by its representation in Berlin ; in other words, the UDC (or the 3 rd international edition of the Decimal System of 1934, in German). This adoption took place on the account of the affinity existing between Spain and Germany at the time. It was the librarian Javier Lasso de la Vega who encouraged the new Government to legislate and to allow the official implementation of the UDC (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996). He drafted an order for the UDC implementation and fomented the official adoption of the system with the modifications emanating from Berlin, omitting the already published international editions and translations of the Decimal Classification which had been undertaken as the 4 th international edition in English, in 1936, and the 5 th international edition of 1939, in French. Furthermore, at the end of the Civil War, when the regional government of the Generalitat of Catalonia disappeared, the new Central Administration set the guidelines for Catalan libraries, and through the 1939 decree for the implementation of the UDC, what had been a reality for over a decade was finally an official adoption and the Decimal System was fully introduced. The Castilian Spanish version of the tables was not completed until It was undertaken by Lasso de la Vega under the title: Universal Decimal Classification. An abbreviated translation preceded by an introduction on the concept and mission of the library with a description of the main classifications and an exposé of the System and contains a brief introduction entailing a short treatise on the UDC. The translation received an excellent response as, for the implementation of the UDC, an official translation of the tables was necessary. Nevertheless, despite this version of the tables being authorised by the FID it was not included among its official publications. The Republican library policy had adopted the use of the UDC, although due to the difficulties being experienced by the country and also to some objections from a legal point of view, it was not implemented via legal regulations; there was no desire to legislate on this aspect so as not to hinder the intense growth of libraries. The new policy, emerged in 1939, was to ratify the adoption and expansion of the UDC, and its official implementation included a library practice which had been fully valid during the previous decade. The library policy of Franco s government had goals totally contrary to those of the preceding Republican policy and the direction of the activities was diametrically opposed. The new direction meant a policy and measures which basically had the dynamics of war, the burning of books, censure, the closure of libraries, control, simplifications and repression.

7 290 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 4. Abolition of the obligatory use of the UDC in Spanish libraries and the current situation The implementation of the UDC, which took advantage of the new government regulatory power simply filled an important legislative vacuum regarding the development of a library policy. The Order was promulgated and came into force in Nevertheless, it referred to a classification system whose validity was almost a decade old although it was intended to keep up with European bibliographic and technical practices. The projection of a Spanish library policy overseas had begun during the period of the Republic. But after the nationalist side won the war, an isolation occurred which also encompassed the library scene. In respect to Europe, the Second World War hindered all the Institute s work and activities. Consequently, when the use of the UDC was established in Spain, this event did not reach the internationalist dimension implicit in the use of an international system such as the UDC and did not make any impact overseas. The consequences were simply internal and the measure just provided an already established practice with a legal framework. To sum up, behind the aforementioned Order, it was the relationship between Spain and Germany the predominant aspect, over the interests of a library policy which would comply with international recommendations in this area. Nevertheless, the Order of 1939 helped to unify technical tasks and to rapidly generalize a system that had already been put into practice. In 1989, the Regulations on State Public Libraries and the Spanish Library System were approved, laying down the regulations for the organisation and running of state libraries. In respect to the technical processing of collections, the Order of 1939 which implements the decimal bibliographical system in the classification of the collections in State Public Libraries was abolished. Therefore, through this provision, the obligatory use of the UDC (or Dewey Decimal Classification in its German version of 1934) in Spanish libraries terminated (SAN SEGUNDO, 1996). This abolishment was not accompanied by the compulsory use of any specific classification systems and new provisions have for long been waited which would regulate the standardisation and unification of a classification system. To date, such new provisions have still not been issued. Furthermore, with the creation of the Statutes of the Autonomous Regions between 1979 and 1983, specific competences were created for libraries in each region. For the time being, however, existing regulations do not include any stipulation regarding classification systems. There currently exists a legal vacuum or vacuo legis regarding the classification system to be used, since the new body created through the 1989 provision, the Library Coordinator Council, was authorised to dictate the regulations for the classification of library collections and the organization of systematic catalogues. It seems that this new body has not yet consolidated its position, a situation that has created such legal vacuum. Nevertheless, this vacuum could be overcome by provisions issued as transitory law, making UDC mandatory (or the German version of the Decimal System) in state libraries, until the appearance of proper regulatory provisions. Consequently, once again we find ourselves in a transition towards new theoretical and practical configurations in the field of document classification. The UDC has currently been fully introduced in almost all Spanish libraries, although there are some cases of implementations of other systems such as the LCC (SAN SEGUNDO, 1999). Since 1989, the UDC has been implemented in libraries for open access collections, catalogue organisation and book shelving, in national regional libraries and other libraries. Its implementation is practically everywhere with the exception of Catalonia which initially

8 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 291 implemented a 1905 version. Subsequent translations into Catalan are more based on the Dewey Decimal Classification rather than on the UDC. 5. Teaching UDC in the university framework of Library and Information Science studies The UDC system is currently studied at all Spanish universities where Library and Information Science (LIS) is taught in first and second degree courses. In all cases, it is a core subject whose study is compulsory. In first degree courses, both the tables and their usage and handling are studied, from a very practical perspective. In second degree courses, work is mainly focused on UDC implementation in the electronic environment, the use of UDC in catalogues, in information retrieval and other aspects. Students complete their studies knowing how to handle UDC tables, how to implement them and exploit it in online catalogues, plus issues of data interchange and interoperability. Spanish universities offering LIS courses all include the mentioned aspects for both degrees, although these subjects have different names in the syllabus of each university. The following is a list of universities with LIS courses and the situation about the teaching of subjects related to the UDC. 1. The Faculty of Communication, Department of Librarianship and Documentation of the Complutense University of Madrid ( htm) offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies. Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Documentary languages I, first year, core subject, four months, 7.5 credits. Documentary languages II, second year, core subject, four months, 7.5 credits. 2. The Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Information, Department of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid ( dpto/dp.html) offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies. Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Classification systems, second year, core subject, four months, 6 credits. Organization and representation of Knowledge, second year, core subject, four months, 6 credits. 3. The Faculty of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares ( offers a Master s degree in Documentation. One course is taught related to the UDC: Documentary languages, for access to master degree, 6 credits. 4. The Faculty of Humanities of the Universidad de A Coruña ( humanidades/) offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, and a Master s degree in Documentation. Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following:

9 292 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access Documentary languages I, first year, core subject, four months, 9 credits; Documentary languages II, second year, core subject, four months, 9 credits. 5. The Faculty of Librarianship and Documentation of Badajoz, Universidad de Extremadura ( offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, a Master s degree in Documentation and postgraduate courses. Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Documentary languages I, first year, core subject, four months, 5 credits; Documentary languages II, second year, core subject, four months, 5 credits. 6. The Faculty of Communication and Librarianship of the Universidad de Murcia ( offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation. One course is taught that relates to the UDC: Document Linguistics I, second year, core subject, four months, 5 credits. 7. The Faculty of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad de Granada offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies ( diplomatura.htm#tron_dipl). Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Documentary languages I, second year, core subject, nine months, 10 credits; Authority control, Documentary languages II, second year, optional subject, nine months, 8 credits. 8. The Area of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad de Leon offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, and doctorate studies. ( es/dp/abd/docencia.htm). Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Document subject analysis, second year, core subject, nine months, 6 credits; Documentary languages II, thirty year, core subject, nine months, 10 credits. 9. The Faculty of Librarianship, Documentation and Translation of the Universidad de Salamanca offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies ( Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Analysis and retrieval of information, first year, core subject, four months, 4.5 credits; Systematic indexing, second year, core subject, four months, 4,5 credits; Subject analysis and documentary languages, needed to complete the courses, 6 credits. 10. The Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, area of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad de Zaragoza offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation ( ebro3.unizar.es:8080/acad/fmpro?-db=w_titulaciones.fp5&-lay=cgi&-format=titulacion. htm&-error=error2.htm&id_titulacion=36&-max=25&-sortfield=orden&-find) One course is taught that relates to the UDC:

10 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 293 Document classification and indexing, second year, core subject, four months, 4.5 credits. 11. The Faculty of Geography and History, Area of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad de Valencia ( offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation. Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Documentary languages I, first year, core subject, four months, 5 credits; Cataloguing and classification, first year, core subject, four months, 10 credits. 12. The Faculty of Informatics, Area of Librarianship and Documentation of the Polytechnic Universidad de Valencia offers Master s degree in Documentation. ( pls/oalu/est_pla.lisbloques?p_tit=65&p_nombre=facultat%20d%60inform%e0tica&p_ cen=p&p_tipo=plan&p_estilo=200&p_idioma=v). There are no courses taught that relate to the UDC. 13. The Faculty of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universidad de Barcelona offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation, a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies ( Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Indexing and classification, second year, core subject, four months, 7.5 credits; Indexing and classification in the Social Sciences, second year, optional, four months, 6 credits. 14. The Faculty of Humanities, Translation and Documentation of the Universidad de Vic offers degree courses in Librarianship and Documentation ( inici.html). Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Documentary languages, second year, core subject, four months, 7.5 credits; Indexing, Abstracts and Scientific documentation, first year, core subject, nine months, 9 credits. 15. The Area of Librarianship and Documentation of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya offers a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies online. ( estudios.htm?origen=51). There are no courses taught that relate to the UDC. 16. The Faculty of Communication of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, offers a Master s degree in Documentation and doctorate studies ( documentacio/). Courses taught that relate to the UDC are the following: Subject analysis and retrieval systems, first year, core subject, four months, 4.5 credits; Documentary languages, second year, core subject, four months, 4.5 credits.

11 294 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access Education in the UDC, both in the practical handling of UDC tables and in theoretical approaches, plus the application of the scheme in the electronic environment, are provided for in almost all the syllabi of Spanish universities that offer Library and Information Science courses. This is a situation which ensures proper technical training guarantees for future library professionals in Spain. 6. The development of research on UDC in Spain The development of research in Information Science is almost all undertaken within the university framework. At the Carlos III University, it is lecturers and researchers who undertake research tasks on the UDC system. On the subject of classification systems, most of the research projects have concentrated on the following aspects: history of the UDC in Spain, which has been completed; possible uses and applications of the UDC in an electronic environment have been investigated; UDC tables have been adapted and translated, as well as the Universal Decimal Classification: a Guide to its Use. Classification manuals and practical exercise books using the tables have also been created. Currently, there is a research project being developed in conjunction with AENOR, the Spanish standardisation body which is in charge of the different editions of the UDC system, given that this is a UNE standard. The project is aimed at creating an electronic UDC edition which includes the association of the subject headings of the National Library of Madrid to UDC numbers. Furthermore, the Carlos III University has published the two latest editions of Dewey Decimal Classification together with the LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) and an edition of the LCC (Library of Congress Classification), also with the associated entries of the LCSH. In Spain, the scientific output on UDC encompasses many aspects of the system, as it is widely implemented in libraries and catalogues. All classification studies address UDC issues. The trend for the future development of the UDC is encouraging and points to applications embracing the interoperability of systems (SAN SEGUNDO 2005) involving either other classification systems and subject heading lists or other documentary languages. 7. Conclusions The adoption of the UDC in Spain is currently generalized. It is implemented in almost all state libraries and also in public and private libraries. In Catalonia, the 1905 version of the UDC was introduced and this brought about the implementation of the Catalan version and, subsequently, of the Dewey Decimal Classification. All regulated university courses in the field of Librarianship and Documentation include learning the theory and the practical application of the UDC tables. In Spain, research on classification systems is already significant and has seen the publication of works on theoretical and historical aspects, practical applications, proposals for new implementations, adaptations and translations of the tables and of practical guiding literature. In the 20 th century, the UDC system was fully implemented in Spain, and its development, in the 21 st century, finds itself in the electronic environment. There are indications that it will continue to be an indispensable instrument to enable the overcoming of linguistic barriers

12 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access 295 in information access services, and also the structuring of electronic information, among other aspects. In this century that has just begun, the structure, notation and implementation of the UDC system remains a valid and powerful instrument for organising information. References Clasificación Decimal Universal (CDU): Edición abreviada de la Norma UNE 50001:2000. (1st ed.2001, 2nd ed. 2004). Adapted by Rosa San Segundo. Madrid : AENOR. Clasificación Decimal Universal de bolsillo (2004). Adapted by Rosa San Segundo. Madrid : AENOR. Fonseca, I. (1978) La CDU en España. Boletín de la ANABAD. Año XVII, no 2 (1978) pp McIlwaine, I.C. (2002) La clasificación decimal Universal. Guía de uso. Adjustment by Rosa San Segundo. Madrid: AENOR. Moreno Fernández, L.M.; Borgoñós Martínez, M.D. (2002). Teoría y práctica de la CDU. Gijón: Trea. San Segundo, R. (1993) Teoría e Historia de la Clasificación bibliotecaria en España: siglos XIX Y XX, Madrid: Universidad Complutense. Also available at: es/eprints/1784/. San Segundo, R. (1994) Breve reseña histórica de la CDU en España. Investigación Bibliotecológica, Archivonomía, Bibliotecología e Información, vol. 8, no 16 (Ene.-Jun. 1994) pp San Segundo, R. (1996) Sistemas de Organización del conocimiento. La organización del conocimiento en las bibliotecas españolas Madrid: Universidad Carlos III; Boletín Oficial del Estado. San Segundo, R. (1997) Principales sistemas de clasificación. In Pinto, M. (Ed.) Manual de clasificación documental. Madrid: Síntesis, pp San Segundo, R. (1999) Futura implantación de los distintos sistemas de clasificación en las bibliotecas del Estado español. In Les biblioteques i els centres de documentació al segle XXI: peça clau de la societat de la informació / 7es Jornades Catalanes de Documentació, EXPODOC 99, 4, 5 i 6 de novembre de Barcelona: Collegi Oficial de Bibliotecaris-Documentalistes de Catalunya, pp Available at: cobdc.org/jornades/7jcd/36.pdf. San Segundo, R. (1999a) Indización en cadena y su aplicación práctica. In La Representación del Conocimiento en sus distintas perspectivas: su influencia en la Recuperación de la Información: Granada: IV congreso ISKO-España-EOCONSID 99. Granada, Isko-España, Universidad, pp

13 296 Proceedings of the International Seminar Information Access San Segundo, R. (2002) La clasificación automática mediante la CDU con el procedimiento en cadena. In I JORNADAS de Tratamiento y Recuperación de Información (JOTRI 2002), Valencia, Universidad Politécnica, 4-5 June Available at: San Segundo, R. (2005) Nuevos sistemas de organización de información electrónica. Paper presented at the 4ta Conferencia Iberoamericana en Sistemas, Cibernética e Informática CISCI 2005, July, Orlando, Florida. San Segundo, R.; Olaran, M. (2001) Implantación y desarrollo de la Clasificación de la Biblioteca del Congreso de Washington (LCC) en las bibliotecas españolas. In Extremeño Placer, A. (Ed.) La Representación y Organización del Conocimiento: Metodologías, modelos, aplicaciones. V congreso de ISKO-España, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), de abril de Alcalá de Henares: Facultad de Documentación, Universidad de Alcalá; ISKO (Capítulo Español), pp [End]